J. Herbin Iris Sagesse

[namrehsnoom]

J.Herbin – Iris Sagesse

 

La Société Herbin, Maître Cirier à Paris, was established in 1670. This makes J. Herbin probably the oldest name among European ink makers. Today, Herbin produces a range of beautiful fountain pen and calligraphy inks, writing instruments, gift sets and accessories. Herbin inks are made in France, and the finishing touches on the bottles are still done by hand in Paris.

 

In January 2025, five new J. Herbin inks were released in the Perle de Encres series. This Iris Sagesse is one of them. The others are Gris Galet, Rouge Amarante, Vert Cactus and Vert Forêt. The inks follow the tradition of their predecessors: well-made inks, that sell at an affordable price (about 10 euro for a 30 ml bottle). Of these five new inks, it was Iris Sagesse that immediately drew my eye, so this is the first one that gets to be reviewed.

 

Iris Sagesse is an intriguing ink with a colour that effortlessly shifts from violet to blue and back again, depending on whatever magic makes the universe tick. Is it the light? The paper? The angle you look at it? The saturation? … I’ve been unable to pin it down. And I don’t care. Because what J. Herbin presents us with is a beautiful violet-blue ink that is a pleasure to use. Not only for writing, but also for more artistic uses. Definitely an ink with character!

A word of warning is at its place here. As you might expect from my above description, Iris Sagesse’s colour is difficult to capture correctly. In scans, it looks too purple, in photos too blue. And to make matters worse, it also depends on your computer screen. The way I see it: violet-blue, with the blue dominating. But the violet tones will not be tamed, and sometimes unexpectedly take the front. It’s unnerving… you look at your writing and it’s definitely blue. Look away and back again, and you might think violet. Crazy! And lovely!

 

Iris Sagesse has an intense colour with high saturation. It’s also a well-lubricated ink, that flows easily from pen to paper. A bit too lubricated maybe. With a wet pen, the ink flow is a bit too gushy, and a lot of ink is deposited on the page. As a result, you get little variation in your strokes - shading doesn't get a chance to surface and gets buried under too much ink. When you tame the ink flow, things become a lot more interesting. The violet-blue meanderings become more pronounced. Soft and subtle shading appears. As such, I prefer this ink in dry-writing pens, or in finer nibs, or with stub nibs that distribute the ink across a broader surface. A bit of experimentation is required to find the right pen/nib combination.

The saturation sample below illustrates the point. The colour span of this ink is fairly narrow, with little difference between the areas of low and high saturation. As a result, any shading you’ll get will be subtle, and with wet pens – that live on the right side of the spectrum – shading will not be present.

 

The water test shown at the end of this review reveals an ink that hates water. It smudges easily, and cannot survive watery accidents. With care, you might be able to reconstruct your writing – but that will need some detective work. When reading the chromatography, this is to be expected. Some ink remains attached to the paper, but the dyes spread out easily, creating a coloured mess that drowns out the original text. Too bad. It makes this ink unsuitable for the workplace.

 

Being a saturated and highly lubricated wet-flowing ink, I was surprised by the really fast drying times of Iris Sagesse. Om most papers, the ink dries in the 5-10 second range with my Lamy Safari M-nib pen, which is quite short. And dry times remain consistent across paper types, even on the very smooth Japanese papers. 

And Iris Sagesse has another surprise up its sleeve. When writing with the ink, it looks more of a violet-purple, that dries quickly to a violet-blue. It makes writing with this ink all the more interesting.

I’ve tested the ink on a wide variety of paper – from crappy Moleskine to high-end Tomoe River. On each scrap of paper I show you:

• An ink swab, made with a cotton Q-tip
• 1-2-3 pass swab, to show increasing saturation
• An ink scribble made with a Lamy Safari M-nib fountain pen
• The name of the paper used, written with a Lamy Safari B-nib
• A small text sample, written with Lamy Safari M-nib
• Source of the quote, written with Pelikan M120 M-nib
• Drying times of the ink on the paper (with the M-nib Safari)

Iris Sagesse looks great on both white and cream paper. It also handles lower quality paper well, with only the tiniest amount of feathering on Moleskine. But expect a lot of show-through and bleed-through on the cheaper paper. The Pelikan M120 pen I used for the quote sources is a wet writer. It clearly shows that with such a  pen, the shading doesn’t get the opportunity to surface. It’s just blown away by the ink’s saturation.

 

The writing samples above are shown as photos. They are close to reality, but still a bit too blue-looking on my laptop screen. Below I also present a scan of some writing samples – this one looks too purple on my screen. Reality lives somewhere in between.

 

Below you can find some enlarged details of writing samples. These illustrate the soft and subtle shading you can expect from Iris Sagesse.

 

Writing with different nib sizes
The picture below shows the effect of nib sizes on the writing. All samples were written with a Lamy Safari, which is typically a dry pen and as such brings out the best out of this ink. The Gazing Far and Pelikan visiting pens are wet writers – they lose much of the shading, and show more blue that violet tones. The M-stub Sailor pen looks great and definitely suits this ink best: nice shading, and it really shows off that violet-blue character of Iris Sagesse.

 

Related inks
To compare J. Herbin Iris Sagesse with related inks, I use my nine-grid format with the currently reviewed ink at the center. This format shows the name of related inks, a saturation sample, a 1-2-3 swab and a water resistance test – all in a very compact format. 

 

I’ve also put Iris Sagesse between it’s cousins Éclat de Saphir and Violette Pensée. The resemblance with Éclat de Saphir is striking. But it also clearly shows that violet undertone shimmering through with Iris Sagesse.

 

Inkxperiment – Science Matters : Newton
As a personal challenge, I try to create interesting drawings using only the ink I’m reviewing. I find this to be a fun extension of the hobby, and these single-ink drawings often present a real challenge. It also gives you an idea of what the ink is capable of in a more artistic setting.

While browsing on Wikipedia, I came across an article on cross-writing. This is a writing technique where you write on the page both horizontally and vertically. This was done in the early days of the postal system in the 19th century to save on expensive postage charges, as well as to save paper. Unexpectedly, it’s still fairly easy to read the lines. And it is extremely cool to look at!

This drawing is the second one in a series inspired by this technique. The violet-blue nature of Iris Sagesse made me think of the sky and by extension the cosmos, with its stars and planets drawing their orbits, governed by the laws of gravity. It should come as no surprise that I selected Sir Isaac Newton’s “Principia Mathematica” for the text in the background of the drawing. 

 

I started with an A4 piece of HP photo paper, and used a dishwashing sponge to draw the blue backdrop. I then used a plastic card dipped in ink to paint the horizontal lines, and a triangular stamp with pure ink to create the triangle shapes. I then used a fine-nibbed pen and copied the text from Newton’s work, employing the cross-writing technique. To finish the drawing I added some splatters of ink, and stamped in some square motifs. The final drawing illustrates what can be achieved with this J. Herbin ink in a more artistic setting.

 

Inkxpired – computational art
I love experimenting with pen/ink/paper, and have added another layer as part of the hobby. I’m exploring computational art, inspired by the ink drawings I do during ink reviews. Another fun offshoot of the hobby… and all that starting with a few drops of dye-coloured water on paper.

 

I started by applying a sketch-art filter that abstracted the drawing, and followed up with a tiny-world filter. I then rotated the picture a bit and did a cut-out. The resulting drawing shows an abstracted view of our solar system, with the planets locked in their orbits, obeying the laws of physics written down in Newton’s seminal work.

 

Conclusion
J. Herbin Iris Sagesse is an intriguing ink with a hard-to-define colour that fluctuates between violet and blue. This ink thrives in dry writers, and opens up in broad stubs – in these circumstances, the violet undertones surface easily, and the ink’s subtle and soft shading enhances its aesthetics. Another fine ink from the Perle des Encres series, and one that I greatly enjoy. 

Technical test results on Rhodia N° 16 notepad paper, written with Lamy Safari, M-nib

 

Backside of writing samples on different paper types

 

 

A few extras
Iris Sagesse’s colour is difficult to capture. Below you’ll find a photo of a photo. On the computer screen: left side shows a scanned image, right side a photo image. And in front of them the same subject. My impression: the images on the computer screen are either too purple or too blue, with the truth in between.

 

While creating the inkxperiment drawing, I used a small piece of photo paper to test saturation of water/ink combinations. I liked the resulting pattern, so instead of throwing it away, I did a quick doodle that turned out just fine. Saved from oblivion 😉

 

[yazeh]

Wow, wow, wow and WOW! What a review @namrehsnoom. 

So much nuance, and so much passion, so much detail!

 

This ink reminds me of Iris reticulata (tiny spring iris) and its many shades of purple. Some rare varieties have a hint of light blue in them. It seems that Herbin has captured the complexities of flowers. 

 

The ink seems to be somewhere between Éclat de Sapphire and Rue de la Verrerie. The latter had decent water resistance.  

As I advanced through your review,  I had this fleeting impression of seeing multiple reviews. I had to keep reminding myself it's the same ink. The Lamy Safari writing sample looks so different from the other pens. 🙀

 

I really love how you transformed your lovely inkexperiement into the Solar System. Bravo! 

Finally, I'm glad you kept your test drawing and saved it. It's one of your best works, and you captured different shades of the ink. Looking forward to seeing a shootout between this and the other two Herbin inks.

 

[LizEF]

Amazing review, @namrehsnoom!  Not my color, but your descriptions of its behavior were exciting and familiar (though I forget the ink that did similar things - changing color between blinking ).  And I'm far too familiar with the game of scans, photos, and different screens all being not quite right! Thank you for pushing through to bring us a review filled with such joy.

 

I really love the "quick doodle" - saved indeed!   I think I like it more than the inkxperiment, the computational version of which is very cool - made me think of Discworld...

[lapis]

Wow² !! I'll buy that. Great review -- a culminant review -- (as usual) for yet another very interesting ink. Very first thing I thought of was of course their Éclat. But this new Herb is definitely more intense, less "washed out" than the age-old Éclat. That's the main (if not sole) reason I hardly ever use Éclat anymore. This new Iris has IMO only a tick (more) violet but that, again IMO, is absolutely okay. Thanks a lot for your big contribution here !

[encremental]

Fabulous review as always! Oddly enough, I found the five inks on Amazon UK just this week, and snapped them up. I have not seen them for sale here anywhere else.

 

The two I've tried, Rouge Amarante and Vert Cactus are both bobby dazzlers. Herbin have been on a roll recently - I loved the Paris set, and Rue de la Verrerie is now my favourite blue.

 

John

[Lithium466]

Wow^3! What a fabulous review, thank you @namrehsnoom! As always, the thoughtfulness, the art! 

As for the ink, of course I'm going to buy some, they are just using my signature formula! A 50/50 mix of Éclat de saphir and violette pensée, mix well, let evaporate for a few days, and cross your finger it doesn't go bad.

[Penguincollector]

  This ink is lovely, and your artwork always draws me in (pun not intended, but apt). It’s definitely an ink that is going on my list. Like @Lithium466, I am always looking for a good blurple. 

[inkstainedruth]

@namrehsnoom OOOOOH!  This one is REALLY tempting.  What a beautiful color!  I'm going to guess the the new Herbin line will be well behaved in a drier pen, and not be cloggy?  

Sigh.  Do NOT need more ink.  Do NOT need more ink....  I already have too many inks I've never tried.... 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[boilermaker1975]

I added this ink to my Lamy purchases at Pen Boutique before I hit submit. It was only another $13.95!

[boilermaker1975]

Loaded in my new Lamy Safari. Nice ink. My first Jacques Herbin ink.

 

 

[yazeh]

@boilermaker1975 congrats. Enjoy it

[inkstainedruth]

@boilermaker1975 -- Oh rats!  Now I really want that ink even more....  It would be interesting to see a side by side with the MB Jimi Hendrix homage ink -- that one I didn't hesitate to pay full retail price for, and am now just kicking myself for NOT getting a second bottle when I had the chance (because I saw a bottle on the Bay of Evil that priced at something like 3 or 4 TIMES the original retail price... ). 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[boilermaker1975]

@yazeh thanks!

 

@inkstainedruth I am guessing that MB Jimi Hendrix ink came out before I got back into Fountain Pens.

[inkstainedruth]

It came out a couple of years ago.  My problem was that I was running through a sterling Ciselé Parker 75 with a broad nib, so going through it faster than I might have otherwise, because it's GORGEOUS.  It's smack in the middle of the spectrum purple -- doesn't lean blue, doesn't lean red, doesn't lean dark, doesn't lean lavender.  

I had already pretty much given up on finding a close enough replacement for the MB Leo Tolstoy LE ink (which is a nice turquoise/teal color). 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Karmachanic]

3 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

MB Jimi Hendrix homage ink

 

Tried it. It was actin' funny but I don't know why.

[InkyProf]

7 minutes ago, Karmachanic said:

It was actin' funny but I don't know why

 

Try naphtha and a match? 

[LizEF]

6 minutes ago, InkyProf said:

Try naphtha and a match? 

[boilermaker1975]

18 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

It came out a couple of years ago.  My problem was that I was running through a sterling Ciselé Parker 75 with a broad nib, so going through it faster than I might have otherwise, because it's GORGEOUS.  It's smack in the middle of the spectrum purple -- doesn't lean blue, doesn't lean red, doesn't lean dark, doesn't lean lavender.  

I had already pretty much given up on finding a close enough replacement for the MB Leo Tolstoy LE ink (which is a nice turquoise/teal color). 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

I am wondering if the broadness I am seeing with Baystate Concord Grape in my medium nib Safari is because of the ink?  Iris Sagesse in my other medium nib Safari performs like all my other medium ribbed pens?

 

 

[Lithium466]

7 minutes ago, boilermaker1975 said:

 

I am wondering if the broadness I am seeing with Baystate Concord Grape in my medium nib Safari is because of the ink?  Iris Sagesse in my other medium nib Safari performs like all my other medium ribbed pens?

 

 

That is very possible as these Baystate inks tend to produce large lines, and spread a bit on some papers. To alleviate that you can dilute it a bit with distilled water for example.

[Karmachanic]

16 hours ago, InkyProf said:

Try naphtha and a match? 

 

Lyric from Purple Haze.  Thought @inkstainedruth would catch it.